


Parallel

by dreamlittleyo



Series: Flippant 'Verse [4]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Bonding, Cave-In, Confusion, Intimacy, M/M, Sexual Tension, Telepathic Bond, Trapped, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, Wordcount: Over 1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2013-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 19:18:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamlittleyo/pseuds/dreamlittleyo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Spock is more forthcoming than usual and Kirk gets ideas.<br/>(Prompt: <a href="http://dreamlittlelion.livejournal.com/13542.html">Parallel</a>)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parallel

Kirk tries to get the Enterprise to the Vulcan colony like he promised. He honestly, genuinely tries. He even contacts Admiral Komack and gets an official ferrying assignment to see them there.

But the Enterprise misses her pickup when a distress signal calls them off course, and then not _quite_ every possible thing goes wrong, but it's close. Hostile ground forces, a communications white-out, and it's great that Scotty got partial transporter capability back online, but it would've been even better if he'd managed to beam back the entire landing party. 

Kirk watches Chekov and the security detachment disappear in the bright glow of the transporters, but there's no tingle of displacement to hint that he's about to follow them. He doesn't even need to look to know Spock has also missed the boat. His first officer is still a tangible presence beside him, and Kirk shouldn't be this relieved to have Spock stranded with him. 

He doesn't have time to wonder if he should feel guilty. Weapons fire sounds close by, and he and Spock run the other way. Directionless retreat, out of the cover of deep forest and into an almost blinding rain beyond. 

Kirk can't see for shit, but Spock seems to be navigating with purpose, and Kirk follows without hesitation. Sometimes he can see the deep, drenched blue of Spock's uniform through the downpour, but mostly he follows the tugging warmth of Spock's presence in his mind, urging him to speed, leading the way. The ground is relatively smooth at least, flattened by the region's nearly constant precipitation, and it doesn't matter much that he can barely see the path beneath his feet. 

He notices the abrupt cessation of rain an instant before he realizes they've run into the mouth of an enormous cave. The space arches mind-numbingly high, and sprawls so wide it doesn't feel like a cave at all at first. Then they move farther in, and the walls and ceiling veer abruptly inwards, making Kirk feel trapped.

He can't hear footsteps behind them, but then he can't hear much of _anything_ over all that rain. A moment later and a chunk of rock to his left explodes in a burst of weapons fire, proving they haven't evaded their pursuers.

Kirk loses track of the next several minutes. Adrenaline-fueled instinct guides his every move as he and Spock rush deeper into the cave, dodging and climbing and maybe even gaining distance on the enemy.

Then there's a brighter flash, the roar of a more powerful weapon discharging, and the entire cave echoes with an ominous rumble.

" _Spock_!" Kirk shouts.

He tackles his first officer to the ground, narrowly evading the first of the heavy stone deposits to clatter from the ceiling. They scramble quickly beneath a low, natural arch that offers protection from the shaking, shuddering chaos around them. The cave roof is collapsing. Fucking perfect.

There are screams. Their pursuers have clearly not moved fast enough to dodge the destruction their weapons have caused. Kirk tries to protect his face from the flying dust and pieces of rock, his eyes squeezed shut. Spock's hands find him, clasping his arms with bruising strength. Kirk curses and curls closer to Spock, away from the deafening crash of settling stone.

\- — - — - — -

Long after the cave has stopped trying to kill them, Spock informs him that their narrow sanctuary opens into a wider space towards the back. The way they came is impassible, so there's little choice of where to go.

The farther they move from the stilled avalanche behind them, the more spacious their surroundings become. They're maneuvering by the pathetic light of emergency torches, but it's enough to watch their footing as they seek sturdier ground.

Eventually Kirk calls stop. This is as safe a space as they're likely to find, and when he shines his light straight up he can't actually see the cave roof in the beam from his light. The path they've been following—if they can even call it a path—seems to continue a substantial distance ahead before the light can no longer reach it. 

"At least we won't run out of oxygen," Kirk says. 

"Indeed," Spock agrees. "Though as we have neither food nor water, the advantage may prove academic."

"Have I mentioned recently how much I appreciate your optimism?" Kirk sits as comfortably as he can on the cold stone, leaning his back against a sturdy rock formation. "Anyway, oxygen's all we need. Scotty will figure out how to cut through the atmospheric interference in no time, and then he can beam our asses back to the Enterprise where they belong."

\- — - — - — -

"Captain—"

"I don't want to hear it," Kirk snaps, masking his worry behind the sharp lash of irritation.

"Nevertheless," Spock continues blandly. "I must point out that as six hours have elapsed without contact from the Enterprise, the window of opportunity for our rescue has effectively closed."

"They could still find us," Kirk insists, but his heart can't be in it when he knows Spock is right. 

"You gave express orders that in the event of—"

"I _know_ ," Kirk cuts him off. The rescue mission was a failure, and the Enterprise is long gone by now. They'll make contact with Starfleet as quickly as they can, and then maybe a rescue will be dispatched—or maybe it won't—those are the tough choices left to Starfleet Command. In any event, even if the Enterprise is authorized to return and mount a rescue, the chances they'll make it back and actually find captain and first officer in time is slim. Spock was right. They have no provisions, and there's been no indication of water so far. 

They're going to die down here. Kirk is glad that, for once, Spock doesn't cite the odds.

"Perhaps if we continue forward we will be able to find water at least," Spock suggests. 

Kirk grins.

"Suddenly the optimist, Spock?"

"There is a vast difference between optimism and prudence, Captain."

But he's already turning away, choosing a direction at random Kirk suspects, and Kirk follows without complaint.

\- — - — - — -

They have to rest eventually. Two hours of trudging later, they still haven't heard so much as a trickle of water in the distance.

"Enough." Kirk drops to the ground, tired more in spirit than in body. "Let's just... take a break, all right? Just for a few minutes." He'd kill for a tricorder. But Spock was carrying the only one between them, and he wasn't carrying it anymore after the cave in. Simple deduction what happened there. 

"Very well." Spock sits beside him, nearer than necessary, stiff and cross-legged beside Kirk's careless sprawl.

The silence is disconcerting, complete but for Kirk's own heavy breathing. Spock's breathing is irritatingly silent. At least Kirk doesn't have to ask if his first officer is hurt; he can feel, more clearly than usual, that physically Spock is in perfect health. 

There's also an undercurrent of emotions Kirk can't decipher, and he decides a distraction is in order.

"So we're definitely not going to die," he says, brightening his tone with forced cheer. "But since there's sort of a huge chance we _will_ die, I think you owe it to me to finish explaining all that stuff you said I don't need to know."

"Jim?" In the dim torchlight, Spock's brow furrows with genuine confusion.

"With this bond you put between us. There was other stuff. Stuff you wouldn't tell me. You might as well tell me now."

"I see no purpose in spending any portion of my remaining hours explicating a topic Vulcans do not discuss with outsiders."

Kirk blinks and something tenacious tightens in his chest.

"Oh come on," he protests. "You _have_ to tell me _now_. You can't say cryptic shit like that and then shoot me down flat."

Spock's subsequent silence is pointed. 

"C'mon, Spock. Don't be like that." Kirk edges closer so he can nudge Spock with his elbow. "You can tell me. Hey, we're Vulcan-married, aren't we?"

"It is _not_ a marriage," Spock informs him shortly. Kirk grins at the genuine irritation he's managed to dredge up in his first officer's voice, muted but undeniable. 

"You can still tell me."

Spock is silent again, but there's something more considering in his quiet stillness this time. When he speaks, his voice is tinged with something on the very brink of surrender.

"Do you intend to persist in this line of questioning until one of us succumbs to fatigue or dehydration?"

"Only if you keep saying no."

Kirk knows he's won even before Spock says, "It is intensely personal, Captain. Even among Vulcans it is discussed only in private, and only between those on the most intimate terms."

"We're on plenty intimate terms," Kirk points out reasonably. Spock is a permanent presence in Kirk's brain—at least until they find someone who can fix it—and Kirk figures that's about as intimate as it gets. "Anyway, who am I going to tell down here? Come on Spock, tell me about these 'practical considerations' that are none of my business." 

Spock stifles a sound that Kirk is highly suspicious would have been a sigh, but it's accompanied by a strange mix of irritation and fondness. Kirk stifles an even wider grin and waits expectantly.

"It is called Pon Farr," Spock says in an oddly static voice. "The Vulcan drive to mate. It is... an unsettling time."

\- — - — - — -

Kirk's head is spinning by the time Spock finishes his truncated explanation.

Not because what Spock's told him is all that weird. Jim Kirk is captain of a starship for fuck's sake. He eats stranger situations for breakfast most days. This is hardly the oddest biological quirk he's come across since signing on with Starfleet, or the most confusing take on the drive to reproduce for that matter.

But hearing Spock talk in such calm, detached words about something like this... It's surreal to say the least. It's also making Kirk feel distracted and warm.

Only once has Kirk seen Spock with all his control stripped away, and it was in the worst possible circumstances. This sounds different. Just as awful and terrifying from where a Vulcan is sitting, certainly, but at the same time—

At the same time Kirk is suddenly thinking thoughts he's never let himself entertain before. Thoughts about his first officer, and about the ease with which Spock could overpower him if Kirk actually put up a fight. Thoughts about Spock's hands holding him down, Spock's mouth doing things far more entertaining than citing regulations Kirk will only choose to ignore. Thoughts about what it might be like to have that fire, that loss of control, aimed at him. 

Not that Spock wants him. Not that Spock _would_ want him, even if Pon Farr were taking him apart. But just the same, Kirk suddenly can't think about anything else.

"Captain, are you all right?" Spock asks when Kirk has been silent too long.

Kirk is glad for the paltry gleam of their emergency torches. He can't imagine the flush on his cheeks shows in the dim light, though he wonders if Spock has an inkling of what Kirk is thinking anyway. The connection between them _has_ grown stronger with time, just as Spock predicted. Kirk's not picking anything in particular up from Spock right now, but that tells him nothing.

He needs to redirect. He needs to shift his brain onto a different track—one less likely to get him in trouble.

"Jim," Spock edges closer, clearly uncertain as to the reason for Kirk's silence. "If you have concerns regarding my intentions, I assure you they are unnecessary. Once the bond is severed—"

"No. Hey, no, Spock. I'm not worried." Kirk forces a smile up from somewhere. "I get it. Soon as you're rid of me, things get back on track. Your time comes, you pick a more appropriate mate, no harm no foul." 

But the idea of Spock and appropriate mates calls up a different worry.

"Hey." Kirk feels sheepish that the thought is only hitting him now. "This should've occurred to me sooner, but what does Uhura think of this whole mess? The... y'know. Us. Being accidentally married or betrothed or whatever this is." 

Spock hesitates, and it's only because Kirk knows him so well now that he actually notices.

"I have not discussed the situation with her in detail, but her response has been one of support and concern."

"You mean she's not angry?" Kirk's brow furrows at how very little sense that makes. He may be crap at relationships, whether they're his own or other people's, but he's pretty sure when the Vulcan you love goes and brain-marries some other guy you've got a right to be pissed.

"Why should she be angry? The circumstances do not directly affect her." Spock sounds so earnest Kirk can't fathom he's deliberately fucking with his captain's head, but the words make no sense.

"Seems like it could be awkward," he hedges uncertainly, "having your boyfriend propose to someone else, even by accident." 

This, at least, gives Spock pause. His expression darkens, then clears as comprehension eases across his face. "Ah. You are operating under a misapprehension. Nyota and I are no longer romantically involved."

"You're not— I— What?"

"It has been several months since the lieutenant and I decided to redefine the parameters of our relationship." 

Kirk needs a minute—possibly several minutes—to process that information, but at last he guesses, "She dumped you."

Spock gives him a perturbed look. "I can assure you the decision was entirely mutual. For some time our paths have been diverging. It seemed prudent to end things while our interactions remained amicable."

Vulcans don't lie, Kirk knows. Especially this Vulcan. Especially about things that matter. Which means somehow, without Kirk or anyone else on the crew even noticing, Spock and Uhura called it quits and decided to just be friends. Because they're definitely still friends. Kirk has seen them together in recent months, and if there had been even a hint of distance there, he'd have guessed right away that something was up.

It's hard to credit that he could have missed the boat on this one, but it's clearly true.

"Huh." Kirk shakes his head. "Didn't see that one coming."

\- — - — - — -

They've traveled deeper into the cave by the time Kirk's communicator crackles to life. The signal is faint, but Uhura's voice is still the most incredible thing he's ever heard.

"You're supposed to be long gone, Lieutenant," Kirk says, but he's grinning with relief.

"We had a minor malfunction in the warp plasma manifolds," she reports in a voice that doesn't even try for convincing. "Scotty is confident we'll be able to evacuate the system as soon as we've got both of you back on board." 

"And when might that be?" 

"Chekov has almost finished reconfiguring our transporters to cut through the interference. Stand by." The line cuts out, and Kirk shuts his communicator. He's barely containing a relieved bubble of laughter, and he's not surprised when he turns to Spock and finds him as close to smiling as Kirk ever sees him.

"Optimism, Spock." 

Spock inclines his head in agreement. When he meets Kirk's eyes again, a more somber edge has crept into his expression. It's not quite enough to stifle Kirk's mirth, but it does make him school his face calm and set a hand on Spock's shoulder.

"What is it?"

"Captain." Spock sounds strangely hesitant. "Regarding our recent conversation—"

"Relax, Spock," Kirk interrupts. His tone is serious now, because he understands exactly what's troubling Spock. His first officer will never tell him another secret again if he thinks Kirk isn't taking him seriously. "You can trust in my discretion. No one hears a word about it from me, I promise." 

"Thank you."

Kirk rises to his feet and extends his hand, but Spock stands up without accepting the assistance. Kirk tells himself Spock simply didn't see the offer in the dim light, even though he knows Spock saw perfectly well. 

His communicator chirps before he can really stew about it, and Uhura's voice is once again a bright, blessed sound.

"Whenever you're ready, Captain."

"Energize."


End file.
